Since I’ve last written, you’ve done amazing things. You can stand! Actually, you can stand so well I thought you’d be walking already but you can crawl so well, why bother trying to walk.

You love going to the park and playground. Climbing the stairs, playing with the mulch, and going down the slide. You can go down on your belly pretty much by yourself but need help if sitting up. Sometimes you love the swing and sometimes you just hate it. I don’t know why but it probably has something to do with Noam. You adore Noam. If he gives you a hug or a kiss it makes you giggle.

I think we can officially say that you’re trying to do hand signs. They are not exactly the way we would do it but the point is that you are trying to communicate. The 2 main ones I can spot are “more” and “drink”. I can’t really tell if you’re just experimenting or frustrated.
For about 6 weeks now, you can play peekaboo. I mean, not just get excited when we are playing but you are hiding yourself -behind your blanket or a box or a curtain. You also recently started teasing me. You would stand in your crib like you want me to pick you up and then crawl away squealing when I come to get you. Or you would hand something to me and then take it away and laugh.

You are making more and more sounds. Just today you said “buhbye”. And yesterday, it sounded like you said “hi”. You also make syllables that sound like “mommy” and “arye” but as far as we can tell you aren’t using them to communicate. Sometimes you switch between speaking and screaming in the very same word. So you say, “ababaAAAAHHH!” And that can go on and on for an hour.

I know for sure you scream with excitement every time you see a dog or a cat. You want to touch and pet them and it can be hard to walk around with you in a stroller. There was a dog the last couple of times we were at the playground and all you wanted to do was play with the dog. Whenever we turned away you would scream, and when it was time to leave there were real, sad tears. You also love looking at and want to touch other babies/toddlers, but don’t scream for them the way you scream for dogs.

This week Aba bought me some flowers and you wanted to touch them every time we walked by them. At first you were very rough and wanted to grab and demolish them. But eventually we taught you how to touch them gently. Then you even wanted to sniff them.